The best antidote I have found is to yearn for something. As long as you yearn, you can't congeal: There is a forward motion to yearning.

The act of longing for something will always be more intense than the requiting of it.

I work continuously within the shadow of failure. For every novel that makes it to my publisher's desk, there are at least five or six that died on the way. And even with the ones I do finish, I think of all the ways they might have been better.

Who wanted to creep along in comfort when there was one chance in a thousand of flying?

The race of children possesses magically sagacious powers.

Some things arrive in their own mysterious hour, on their own terms and not yours, to be seized or relinquished forever.

I believe that with enough practice and good faith, you can learn to recognize when the work is achieved.